Dancer admits being behind Bolshoi chief attack
By The Associated Press
This article was published March 6, 2013 at 7:41 a.m.
MOSCOW — A Russian ballet star who most recently played the title role in Ivan the Terrible at the famed Bolshoi Theater has confessed that he organized the acid attack on the theater’s ballet chief, Moscow police said Wednesday.
Sergei Filin, the artistic director of the Bolshoi ballet, suffered severe burns to his eyes and face Jan. 17 when a masked attacker threw a jar of sulfuric acid in his face as he returned home late at night. The 42-year-old former dancer is undergoing treatment in Germany.
Star dancer Pavel Dmitrichenko, 29, confessed to masterminding the attack, and two other men confessed to being accomplices, police said in a statement.
“I organized that attack but not to the extent that it occurred,” a bleary-eyed Dmitrichenko said in footage released by Russian police.
Moscow police said in a statement that investigators believe that Dmitrichenko harbored “personal enmity” against Filin.
Investigators got suspicious of Dmitrichenko when they found out that he had recently been in a close contact with an unemployed convict. The suspects were making inquiries about Filin’s schedule and whereabouts and bought SIM cards for mobile phones registered under fake names, police said.
Police found out that the acid that the purported attacker, 35-year-old Yuri Zarutsky, splashed on Filin’s face was bought at an auto shop. Police said Zarutsky is believed to have heated it to make the water evaporate to make the acid stronger. On the night of the attack Dmitrichenko tipped off Zarutsky when Filin left the theater, police said.
Bolshoi spokesman Katerina Novikova said Filin had been informed about Dmitrichenko’s detention, but said the theater would not comment until after the trial.
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